Who Is Steve Ballmer? 6 Things You Might Not Know About New Clippers Owner

By ABC News

May 30, 2014

Adam Berry/Getty Images

Well, it's official. After weeks of speculation over who will take over the Los Angeles Clippers since Donald Sterling's ouster, we have an answer.

Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer snagged the Clippers in a deal that was finalized Thursday night for $2 billion, but who is this billionaire now NBA basketball owner?

Here are a few things you might know about Steve Ballmer:

He was Microsoft's Second CEO

After Bill Gates left the helm of the company he founded, Ballmer took over as Microsoft's CEO in January 2000.

But Ballmer, who had been with Microsoft since 1980 and was the company's first business manager, announced he would retire as CEO on Feb. 4, 2014.

He Grew up in Detroit

Ballmer grew up in Farmington Hills, Mich., outside of Detroit, where his father was a manager at the Ford Motor Company.

He Dropped Out of Stanford University

Although he has a degree in mathematics and economics from Harvard, Ballmer dropped out of Stanford University's Graduate School of Business to join Microsoft.

In a 2007 question and answer session with students at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, Ballmer talked about his decision to leave.

"I was trying to decide actually what to do for my first year summer job," he said. "I was about -- basically Bill and I stayed in touch after I got out of Harvard. I went and visited him. First time I'd ever been in Seattle was the summer before I started at the GSB, because Seattle is kind of off the end of the earth -- at least it felt that way back then.

"And so we stayed in touch. I was going through the first year. I love first year, it's great, I was learning a lot of stuff; wonder what I would have learned that second year."

He Has Money to Play With

According to Forbes, Ballmer has a net worth of roughly $20 billion. On the magazine's list of the World's Billionaires, Ballmer is ranked No. 35.